Biology

Biology

The common lobster is a scavenger, and uses its pincers to manipulate food items (4). The sexes are separate, spawning occurs once a year in summer, and after mating, the female carries the eggs on her walking legs for around 9 months. The larvae are planktonic, and settle at around 3 weeks after hatching (4). Young lobsters are not often found, and very little is known of the behaviour of this stage, but it is believed that they live in coarse sediments and fine mud, where they construct burrows (4). Sexual maturity is reached at around 6 years of age; common lobsters are long-lived, and may live to over 15 years. Unfortunately, very few specimens reach such a ripe age, due to the pressures of intense fishing (4).